Ian McKay

A writer with a particular passion for war stories and comedy.

A hilarious comedy, 'Something Fishy' tells the stories of five men who become kids again when they embark on a weekend sea fishing trip to the west coast of Ireland. There are plots and counter plots during the trip. Two of the men lose their false teeth, but only one of them gets his back again. Of the five men only four go fishing. The fifth man, Charlie Abbott, loves large women and he is otherwise engaged, with a large lady called Big Mary, with life changing consequences for him!

The events that occur over the weekend fishing trip create tensions between their different personalities. The strong bonds of friendships are tested and there are winners and losers. Charlie Abbott doesn’t make it to Ireland, he bites off a bit more than he can chew, with Big mary, in a life or death situation: and, for Charlie life will never be the same!

Something Fishy

In the year 1651, the Black Death plague paid a visit to the city of Liverpool, in the UK. Near today's modern city centre is Addison Street; which, in 1651, because of the hundreds of deaths caused by the plague, was known as Sickmans Lane. This was due to the fact that so many people died from the plague, in the same street, that mass graves had to be dug to bury them: these graves were known as Plague Pits. However, as the years went by, the exact location of the plague pits became forgotten and dwelling houses were built above them.

To this very day, there are people whose houses were built over those 17th century plague pits, however, they don't know it! Believe the unbelievable, imagine the unimaginable, accept the unacceptable. This fictional story chronicles what happened, or could have happened, to a normal everyday family on a Halloween night in Addison Street, Liverpool. Until recent years, there was actually a church called the Church of the Holy Cross, in nearby Fontenoy Street, however, the church was demolished, in 2004.

Halloween in Sickmans Lane

The Nazis, and the horrific events that unfolded during World War 2, simply defied belief. So, maybe we should ask ourselves how did a civilized society ever allow The Nazis to come into power; how did they allow themselves to become brainwashed and seduced by a small group of ruthless ambitious politicians led by an evil, delusional, criminal lunatic named Adolf Hitler?

The Nazis - From The Kaiser to Weimar

After centuries of Imperial rule, in the year 1918, at the end of World War One; the German Kaiser, Wilhelm 2nd, had fled into exile in Holland. The Hohenzollern Empire was dead and this was a difficult thing for the German people to accept. Germany tried to adjust to the fact that their country had lost the war and was now a democratic republic; however, not everyone in Germany believed in democracy.

There were powerful and ruthless forces at work, as greedy, ambitious men plotted to overthrow the new fledgling Weimar rebublic. In a treacherous power game, there were plots and counter plots, attempted coups and counter coups: murders and kidnappings were happening daily. This book explores how the Nazis waged a clever and savage campaign, before they achieved power in 1933.

The Nazis - From Weimar to Hitler

The Nazis - The Third Reich: Genesis

How did Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party come to power? Many people have asked that question. It was on the 30th January 1933; while God and his angels, and all the saints in Christendom slept, that democracy in Germany came to an end. President Paul von Hindenburg, who had previously vowed that he would never allow Adolf Hitler to become Chancellor, elevated him to the post of ‘Reichschancellor’ of Germany. It was on that day that the death rattle sounded in the throat of the Weimar Republic, its last dying breath was choked off; and, as it died: so did German democracy.

Franz von Papen, the man who was confident that he could control Hitler, agreed to serve in the position of Hitler's Vice-Chancellor, He was wrong, he underestimated Hitler, and for the next twelve years the political fate of Germany and its entire population, was to be in the hands of a criminal lunatic and his band of murderous cohorts. After a gestation period of over thirteen years, this was the beginning: ‘Genesis’, the birth of the ‘Third Reich’.